


Growing Pains

by HoodiePatootie



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, syrup is my take on swapfell papyrus lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:07:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21928693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HoodiePatootie/pseuds/HoodiePatootie
Summary: This is a secret santa for Kayla so shout out to her. The secret santa is hosted by Sonamyluffer so shout out to her -- check her profile out if you like horrotale Sans and yandere type behavior lelHappy holidays yall and Kayla I hope I did well on your gift! Merry Christmas fam ^3^
Relationships: Papyrus (Undertale)/Reader, Swapfell Papyrus/Reader, syrup/reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Growing Pains

“I just… Notice you hit puberty,” Edge squints. He’s currently serving breakfast to his skeleton companions, whom all came over.

Edge is looking at Syrup, who is wearing a fluffy hoodie much like Red is wearing. Red gave it to him for Christmas, which is surprisingly nice of him. It’s starting to get cold outside but not cold enough to snow.

Luckily, the skeletons are inside Edge’s home to enjoy a warm breakfast. Mostly pancakes and stuff. Syrup pour a bunch of – syrup on his pancakes, making it soggy and grossing Cranberry out. Cranberry is his brother. He ignored Edge’s comment.

“Aah he did! He’s growing into a fine monster!” Honey beamed. He gotten cheery nowadays. Honestly a lot of things have changed, even in their behavior. Red gotten happier since he starts getting out more. Blueberry started to do more mature stuff like paying for bills and getting groceries. He even started wearing a hoodie like his brother while his voice got a bit deeper. Cranberry stay relatively the same except he starts to take after Edge, growing tougher and his voice also growing husk. Syrup’s legs bent slightly with how long they gotten, his spine slouching a little as he ate. Edge noticed he got closer to his height, just a few inches short. He’s a pretty big guy at that. Syrup even outgrew Red!

Cranberry didn’t really notice what Edge is talking about because he got used to seeing his brother every day. He did notice one change though; he got quieter. He’s never really a talkative type from the start, but he just grew slower and sadder. He was anxious when he was younger, but he was more energetic back then. Now he just stays in his room all day.

* * *

Syrup gently walks over to the playground. He remembers some fond – and chaotic – memories he had spent here with his brother Cranberry. He’s not as messed up about the Pepsi robbery as before, but it did stress him out. He knew the human cops are harsher towards monsters. The reason he grew serious is because his height started to scare everyone around him. It doesn’t help that his nervous demeanor makes him look even more suspicious, so he rather stays inside to avoid trouble. He didn’t talk about this with anyone because he doesn’t want the others to worry. They already feel pity for him because of his autism. These noises, the crowd, the limited space …

Syrup spotted a young girl at the park. By herself. In the cold. Syrup find that odd. There are no children around either, it’s just this girl. He got closer to the girl – she is on the second platform, crouching down as if she is rolled in a ball. He can only see her back. Syrup starts climbing on the metal bars to reach the platform – as he got up, the girl quickly turns around. Her emerald eyes widen, seeing a tall lanky skeleton with a hood on reaching up to where she is sitting. His body cast a shade on her with how massive he is compared to her. He has no idea how intimidating he looks now because he spent half of his life being the scrawniest in the group. Syrup got on the platform slowly, avoiding the girl’s eye contact. He starts to sweat with how much he is thinking about how sketchy he looks. The girl’s breathing is getting shallow, coming out in puffs of cold air. He finally reached the platform, looking over to see if the person is okay.

… Syrup blushes. The girl is small and cute like a button. She also looks soft and cuddly. It made his heart race unexpectedly. When Syrup got closer to her, she quickly made an “eep-!” sound and duck her head in. Time passed really slowly for the girl, waiting for something to happen. Expecting to get kidnapped or worse, the girl opens her eyes when she felt something on her. She just saw fur. She got up slowly and saw that Syrup left his jacket on her only to disappear in a flash. She feels around the jacket, noticing that it’s warm. She looks up with a confused look on her face, not sure if she really saw a large skeleton or she just dreamt it. She got up slowly, looking around to spot the monster. She locked eyes on his form. He’s sitting on the grassy area near the lake, facing away from her. He’s attempting to feed the ducks because they are getting close to him, quacking at him to give them some food. He is feeding them peas because he heard bread hurts their wings.

The girl slowly climbs down with his jacket, coming over to him. He’s getting even more surrounded by ducks. They only leave him be when she got closer, making space for the girl.

“… Sir?”

Syrup jumped, whipping around to look at the girl. She jumped too, worried on whether she is going to freak him out or not. She didn’t really get this close to a monster before.

“Y-Yes?” Syrup gulped. He’s scared to stand up because he doesn’t want to scare her away with his height.

“… My name is Kayla. What’s your name?” she asked, although reluctantly.

“Sssss.. s. s.”

He’s also overthinking on how dumb his name is – Syrup? Maple? Is Maple okay? Wait, that’s lying. That’s really rude.

“Are you being a snake? Ahahaahuhh…” Kayla cringed at herself, stopping her giggles immediately.

“S Y R U P. I’m Syrup. Because I like Syrup,” Syrup shook his head, not minding what Kayla said. They both are avoiding eye contact.

“Ooh,” Kayla nodded.

“I – I’m feeding. You can feed them if you like,” Syrup suggested, pulling up his paper back full of peas.

“Sure,” Kayla shrug, not seeing a problem as she grabs a handful. Ducks flocks over to her, pecking at her hand and the floor where she dropped some.

“… Where is your skin?” she asks suddenly.

“I – I never had skin. None of us either,” Syrup chuckled nervously.

“Us?”

“Us? Oh! Uhh my other brothers. There are more skeletons. We call ourselves the Odokuro group,” Syrup explained.

“Odoguro?”

“Odokuro. There is a story behind that word. There is a giant skeleton that – yeah. A Japanese myth of a giant skeleton,” Syrup hesitantly said. He realizes how scary it would be to tell about the gashadokuro, a giant skeleton in Japanese folklore that devours lone travelers to drink their determination juice. That sounds scary, so he cut the conversation short. He doesn’t want Kayla assuming he’s going to vore-- … eat her alive or something. Syrup is all the juice he needs for nutrients.

“What did the giant skeleton do?” Kayla asks curiously.

Syrup grew silent. He really doesn’t want to lie to her because lying is bad – also he is a bad liar.

“Be … Dangerous—ly scary?” he tries to avoid explaining the full story without being deceitful.

Kayla laughs, relaxing Syrup a little.

“ANYWAYS Uhh How are you? Are you cold?” Syrup quickly asked, not wanting to talk about the folklore.

“I’m fine,” Kayla shrug.

They kept feeding the ducks, watching them fight over the peas. When the peas ran out, Syrup pull his hand down his bag but felt something warm and soft instead – he turns and saw Kayla’s hand is also in the bag to get more peas. There are no peas left. He didn’t notice how weirded out Kayla is from the accidental hand holding while he looked in the bag, pushing his head in. Yup, no peas. He pulled his head out and look up at Kayla.

“You’re hot,” he commented.

“H … Huh?” Kayla squints at him.

“You’re pink too, do you have a fever?” he pointed out, not noticing how weird his previous statement sounded.

Oh … He meant she felt literally hot – Syrup suddenly press his bony palms on Kayla’s forehead, gently pressing on her cheek next. It felt strangely warm on the palm while the phalanges felt cold.

“I was worried you are getting sick or something from being out in the cold – why were you?” Syrup asked sympathetically.

“I –” Kayla blinked rapidly, not sure how to respond --- she randomly teared up. Syrup immediately freaked out, not sure why the human is leaking all of a sudden.

“Did – Kayla? Did I do something wrong?” Syrup frowns, pulling his hands away from her.

“No no! I – Nobody cared about me like that, you know?” Kayla replied, wiping her tears away.

“O-oh … I couldn’t help but care. I care about others, maybe too much,” Syrup smiled sadly.

Kayla is too hesitant to explain anything, worried she will open a pandora box of numerous other issues she has. Both Syrup and Kayla are afraid of scaring people away, except one is external while another is internal.

“You can keep my jacket if you want,” Syrup smiled a little happier, trying to cheer Kayla up.

“No no, it’s okay,” she pulls the jacket up to give it to him. Syrup reluctantly got it back.

“You’re not cold?” he asks.

“N – no, no. I’m fine,” Kayla mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

Syrup got up slowly, slouching to make himself less tall. Kayla look up in awe, realizing how big Syrup is… She couldn’t help but start to look at him as a handsome boy – despite just being bones. He helped her up, holding her hands and pulling her.

“The sunlight is on the platform. It’s probably warm now – we can sit there if you want,” Syrup shrug – he’s feeling a bit shy.

Kayla nodded. They walk back to the playground, Kayla no longer crying from how moved she is of Syrup’s kindness.

She “eeps!” when Syrup suddenly grabs her soft hips, pulling her up on the platform. She noticed how she had this lingering feeling of missing his touch. Syrup then climbs up quickly with his massive legs. He sat on the floor of the platform with his knees crossed.

Kayla slowly grew to trust him, explaining to him small things and asking about his monster nature. Syrup talked about himself a lot for her, trying to be as open as possible for her. He talked about his brother, his family, how he likes his pancakes and waffles soggy, how he used to be smaller … He doesn’t have much to hide. He felt strangely relaxed with this small human. He wants to keep talking to her. His openness paid off, allowing Kayla to also feel safe with him.

Syrup looks over at Kayla as she talks about her favorite color. He felt his cheek bones warm up, not recognizing what he is feeling immediately. He just thought he felt really friendly, but he did feel his soul beat faster than usual.

He wants to stay here forever. She wants to stay here forever.

She never mentions why she is by herself, but all he should know is that they felt very comfortable with one another. Just vibing at the playground.

“Do you have a phone?” Kayla asks.

“Y-Yeh. Yeah I have a phone,” Syrup nodded, pulling his phone out.

“Can I talk to you more often?”

“I love to!” Syrup beamed.

Kayla blushed suddenly. She never really – had anyone be this happy to be her friend. It’s all strangely foreign for her – even causing some worries bubbling up. Meanwhile Syrup is worried that he is being too straightforward or scary. She proceeded to exchange numbers with him before continuing to converse – then end up playing patty cakes to figure out what it is. Nobody ever played this with either of them, so they try to improvise.

Oh. So, this is what friendship is supposed to feel like. This is what love is supposed to feel like.

Would it escalate into something more?

… Both Kayla and Syrup’s soul seem to hum out in agreement.


End file.
